Forget the flowers, chocolates and trite cards this Valentine's Day. A new social ad campaign by Cambridge MA based digital billboard ad tech company Aerva is taking the day to a whole new level.

Image: Aerva

Its campaign gives consumers the ability to tweet or email pictures of their loved one to be displayed in lights in Times Square.

To have your image and Valentine's day message displayed on the Times Square billboard send a tweet to @AervaNYC or email nyc@aerva.com to submit your photos.

Once approved and displayed, a link to your personal Valentine's Day photo, taken from high above Times Square, will be sent to you as a testament to your undying love. How romantic.

The keepsake photo can then be shared with friends and family across social networks such as Twitter, Facebook, Google+, or Pinterest or downloaded directly.

Aerva's Valentine's day online keepsake gallery, on the Aerva website, allows you to view all submitted images and vote for the best image on the “Wall of Love”.

“These days, consumers demand cohesive, multichannel branded social experiences that allow them to take part in their brands' story, if they choose,” said Sanjay Manandhar, CEO and founder, Aerva.

“New York City is the romance capital of the world and Times Square, with its palpable energy and intensity, is the city's heart”

it is not the first time that Aerva has used Times Square billboards for User Generated Content campaigns.

Capitalizing on the trend of featuring real consumers engaging with their brand, HTC ran a “beautiful” campaign over the holiday season. HTC customers uploaded "beautiful"-themed photos to HTC's website. The photos were placed on the billboard to promote the HTC One smartphone.

Image: Aerva

The campaign ran for 11 weeks across the US, UK, China, Hong Kong and Taiwan. It used multiple channels and entry points such as email, web, Twitter, Weibo and Wiexin.

Over the course of the campaign users submitted more than 54,000 images to the photo sweepstakes for a chance to win a 24K gold plated HTC One. The campaign covered such high-traffic times as the holiday season, including New Year's Eve, and Super-Bowl festivities in New York City.

Moderation of photos before publication gives the brand a significant extra overhead in effort during the campaign. Pranksters can quickly hijack poorly run social media campaigns, leaving brands to count the cost of their reputation.

In a place such as Times Square, that reputation cost could be very high indeed.